Buffalo Keaulana’s surf contest to return to Makaha Beach

After enduring Super Bowl LVI and the XXIV Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, Oahu folks can hele on out to Makaha Beach to enjoy the XXXXV Annual Buffalo Big Board Surfing Classic, a charitable event founded by renowned waterman and former lifeguard Richard “Buffalo” Keaulana, 87, his family and fellow members of the Waianae community.

The five-day event, canceled for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be held over two weekends, Feb. 19-21 and 26-27.

Sunday is the deadline for contestants to register at the early rate of $25 for the individual surfing, bodysurfing and paipo boarding events; $50 for two-person surfboard, stand-up paddling or bodyboarding pairs; $100 for four-person canoe surfing teams; and $125 for five-person teams riding a Supsquatch, a 16-foot inflatable raft with a high, pointed prow.

“This is the last weekend you can enter at the cheapest price you’ve ever heard of for a surf contest: $25 a head, which includes a T-shirt,” said Robert “Bunky” Bakutis, a board member of Ho‘oma‘a Foundation, which organizes the event.

After Sunday the fee will double for all categories, payable at the beach the day of the event, with no T-shirt included, he said.

Event proceeds will be donated to the Junior Lifeguard program and toward building a public pool for the Waianae community, which has none, “not even at the high school,” Bakutis added.

“Basically, we’ve always been trying to help out our community,” said Brian Keaulana, president of Ho‘oma‘a Foundation, which was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization in 2021, “and this nonprofit gives us a platform to share our upbringing and kuleana with the rest of the world. We’re connected by water, and everyone who comes to Makaha Beach and gets in the water becomes part of our family.”

The event aims for everyone to have fun, but safely, said Keaulana, a big-wave surfer and former lifeguard.

The bodysurfing division requires a hand board, which means “you could use a rubber slipper, Mc­Donald’s tray or an actual hand board of your choice,” Ho‘oma‘a information officer Maile Desoto wrote in response to an email query.

The surfing competitions for men, women, “foreigners” and “legends” ages 60 and older require a board at least 10 feet long. Paipo and alaia boards must have no skegs, and Supsquatch and canoe riders must bring their own paddles.

Participants in the surfing and bully (body) board events for those 250 pounds and over must weigh in at the beach.

Register through Sunday at hoomaa.org/bbbsc.